Why Alcoa Corp Stock Didn't Plummet When Aluminum Prices Tanked in September

Aluminum producer Alcoa Corp's (NYSE: AA) stock ended September up around 6%. That may not sound like much until you consider that competitor Century Aluminum Company (NASDAQ: CENX) fell 15% in the month. Some of Century's drop was just giving back a part of the huge gains it saw in August, but there's more to understand here.

Alcoa makes aluminum, but aluminum isn't all it does. Alcoa's business spans the entire aluminum value chain. That's not the case at Century, where aluminum is all it does. In fact, Century's business is centered around producing primary aluminum. That means it has to buy the materials needed to make aluminum from others (such as Alcoa) while aluminum prices will be the main driver of top line results.

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Source: Fool.com